Page 5 of Gunpowder

“You never know,” Blair called after him.

Sunshine clicked his tongue again and pulled the sliding door shut behind him. Blair stared at the empty space. A rotation—that sounded like something to do with an internship or a residency, maybe. Blair reclined his head against the pillows, wondering if that guy was always such a dick or if he just didn’t care since Blair was his last patient in this department.

Either being cooped up in the hospital was making him crazy or another round of drugs was working its way through his system, because Blair suddenly found this whole situation hilarious. He had just wanted to get the run over with and go have some food, and he’d gone and got shot. He definitely wasn’t going to be getting any of Ricky’s smoked ribs while he was in this damned place. Not only did he get shot, but it was by the gun belonging to the man who’d taught Blair to shoot in the first place.

Seeing his leg elevated in front of him finally got the best of him. Blair pushed the blanket back and pulled up the bottom of the papery, mint green gown tied around his body. There was a blot of red showing through the gauze wrapped around his left thigh. He ran his finger along the edge, tempted to have a peek. He reluctantly moved his hand away. Sunshine had said his bandages just changed; Blair would hate to have to call someone back in here to change them again just because he wanted to poke and prod at his boo-boo.

On the other side of the curtain, the door slid open again. He sat as straight up as he could.

Isaac wasn’t reckless enough to send someone to finish him off in a public hospital, right?

Even if he did, Blair knew there would be a couple of his own people close by in case he tried that very thing.

Still, he felt around on either side of him without taking his eyes off the door and settled for resting a finger on the red call button when he couldn’t find a makeshift weapon; he didn’t want any of the hospital staff to try and get involved, but hearing them coming might spook whoever entered his room.

“Blair?” said a small voice.

His body unwound with a long sigh of relief. He let go of the call button and as a wide grin broke across his face. “Hey, Marie.”

Her bland surroundings made the girl look even more ethereal. With platinum blond hair falling to her waist and a natural grace to her movements, she crossed the space between them like a tiny ballerina that escaped from her music box. Her presence soothed away every trace of his nerves from a moment ago. She took his hand in both of her small ones.

“How are you feeling?”

“They have me on some painkillers but the doc said it came out clean, and didn’t hit anything major.”

She nodded, sending some of her curls past her shoulders to tickle his arm. “Isaac and Jinx got away.” She must have seen the guilt cross his face, as her hands tightened around his. “We can always flush them out again but if you had bled out, there wouldn’t have been another Blair. Saving you was worth letting them escape.”

Marie wasn’t the newest member of Incindious but she was the youngest at a tender sixteen, and that might have been the reason he made an exception for his hatred of his first name when she said it. If Spencer was their brain then Marie was their heart. She could read them all like open books, even Felix’s bitter ass. It was hard not to feel calm around her and right then, she was a better remedy than any amount of morphine they could pump into him.

“Thanks for coming, Marie.”

“Felix wanted to come in, too, but that wasn’t going to work.”

Blair cringed. “Is he mad?”

“No, he just got kicked off the grounds for smoking,” she said with a small smile.

“How’s Spencer?”

She sighed. “He got kicked out for smoking, too.”

He laughed at the thought of the boss and his right hand, above the law and bound by no rules, getting kicked off the property by a couple security guards. It was just ridiculous enough to suit this jacked up night, or day, possibly. He didn’t know how long it had been.

Her smile waned as she rubbed circles into the top of his hand. “Blair.”

“Yeah?”

Her fingers stilled. “They declared war in that warehouse,” she said, looking down at his leg.

“I know.” He knew better than anyone.

“Get better, and get ready,” she said solemnly. “Felix has already given the orders. He wants them all dead.”

2

GUARDIAN

Hospital food sucked. By the time Blair was discharged, he would have sold his kid sister for a pork chop. He signed his release paperwork with an illegible scrawl of ink and took his crutches like a gold medal. They meant he was just a hobble away from freedom. Marie had dropped off a change of clothes for when he was released that were clean and, most importantly, didn’t have a .22 sized hole in the leg. A nurse insisted on showing him out, though it was probably less out of concern than because it was their job to make sure he had someone to drive him home.

---